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Key Sectors in the Miramichi Area

Forestry

Forestry has been the dominate industry in the Miramichi region since the late 1800’s and continues to be the largest contributor to the local economy. The Forest sector has undergone significant change, especially in the last 2 decades as changes in technology and global competition have shaped the sector. The region has Pulp, Paper, Lumber, OSB and Value-Added operations.

The forest industry is a major employer in New Brunswick employing approximately 15,000 people directly and another 13,000 indirectly. In the Miramichi region, the industry employed 2700 people (14.2% of the total labour force) at the time of the 1996 census.[1] Today, the sector employs 2,276 or 12.28% of the labour force and the general outlook “appears to be continued employee reductions unless new activities are introduced such as increases in silviculture and value added manufacturing” (Forestry Sector Task Group).

The forest industry has been in a downturn due to lumber price decreases, the 2001 expiration of the Canada-US Softwood Lumber Agreement and the subsequent duties. Many sawmills in the province and region are facing slowdowns due to these penalties and difficult economic conditions. Though difficult, the greater concern has to be with the longer-term trend of “globalization” and the ability of smaller operations to compete at a global level.

The industry has the opportunity to move upscale to value-added processing, with a heavy emphasis on export markets. Opportunities for expansion exist in the value added area through better use of the various species available in the fiber supply and by-product development.

^[1] Some of the differences in these figures may be attributable to re-profiling or reclassification of the data.